KenKen Puzzles

April 28, 2008
By

A while back there was a post on Passion for Puzzles about a new kind of puzzle called KenKen puzzles.  The puzzle was featured on the Times Online site where a few puzzles were printed along with an article about the puzzles’ creator Tetsuya Miyamoto.  To be honest, I only skimmed the article.  It seemed to be more about the creator’s teaching philosophy than about puzzles.

KenKen puzzles are a variation of killer sudokus.  The layout is exactly the same.  The only difference is that the groups of boxes have not only a number, which in killer sudoku would represent the sum of the numbers in the boxes, but they also contain an arithmetic operator which tells you what to do with the numbers.  They need not only be sums.  They can be differences, products, or quotients.

Enjoy!

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10 Responses to KenKen Puzzles

  1. ahmed on May 5, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    It’s Really Cool and challenging This Game!
    I found it in a german magazine and it was great!
    unfortunatelly it’s still not wide spread and i cannot find any of it anymore!!
    wish to know where to play it online or wish to know a book for kenken puzzle!!!

  2. Francis on May 12, 2008 at 5:05 am

    While I found these puzzles interesting at first, once you’ve done a dozen or so they ceased to be challenging.
    However, there’s a variation on this that gives you the total to reach but omits the operator, so it’s an additional factor for you to figure out. I’ve found that this is the only way (for me) that these puzzles remain challenging.

  3. Will Shortz does KenKen &raquo puzzlinks.com on September 7, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    [...] in April, I put up a post about KenKen puzzles when they first started appearing on the Times Online site.  Now Will Shortz is jumping on the [...]

  4. djape on October 6, 2008 at 2:28 am

    Folks, I’ve started posting daily KenKen puzzles on my website. I’ve also introduced KenKen variations (overlapping, diagonal etc.)

    Check them out!

  5. djape on October 6, 2008 at 2:28 am

    Oh, I forgot the url… visit:

    http://www.djape.net/sudoku/wp/

  6. webkendoku on December 10, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    Hey everyone, I just launched a new site to play games online. If you get a chance, check it out at: http://webkendoku.com/

  7. webkendoku on December 18, 2008 at 8:22 am

    Just to give everyone an update, we just completed a Google Gadget and now you can play games from your http:://www.google.com/ig homepage.

    You can add the gadget to your homepage from:

    http://bit.ly/2LqOPA
    or
    http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=hosting.gmodules.com%2Fig%2Fgadgets%2Ffile%2F110161288541501636141%2Fkenken.xml

  8. webkendoku on December 19, 2008 at 10:50 pm

    there are now 2 google gadgets available, 4×4 and 6×6. if anyone is interested, see below:

    4×4 – http://www.googlemodules.com/module/8622/
    6×6 – http://www.googlemodules.com/module/8634/

    at googlemodules.com you can preview, add to your google homepage, and pull some script code to run it on your own websites.

  9. webkendoku on December 24, 2008 at 5:25 am

    if googlemodules.com is unavailable, the 4×4 and 6×6 kenken games are mirrored and also available at

    http://www.googleminiapps.com/fun-games/play-4×4-kendoku-and-kenken-online-gadget/
    http://www.googleminiapps.com/fun-games/play-6×6-kendoku-and-kenken-online-gadget/

    thanks.

  10. Xist on June 4, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    hey kenken is the best so yah try it and enjoy.